the new apartment is called Qi Jia Yuan. it is a diplomatic compound. it is pretty old. it is across the street from the friendship store which used to be the only place foreigners could buy things in beijing because they were not allowed to exchange for chinese money or something like that. outside there are real police men at the front gate, then more security guys beyond the gate. now i must carry my passport with me everyday to get in here. it is right on a huge avenue, jianguomenwai da jie. the balconey in my bed room over looks this street. the neighborhood is the central business district. that means stuff is more expensive, and this apartment is very expensive. it makes chinese people's jaws drop when i say what the monthly rent is. So it turns out my aunt is returning to Washington DC now so i am on my own in China. this means i will only live here for 1 month (already paid for thanks to her). after a month of living like a king its time for me to move out of new beijing and into an old beijing neighborhood.

just kidding. thats not my stuff. someone else was moving in this day

i live in the shorter building. there are a bunch of these short and tall buildings though. it's pretty cool to think i live in a "diplomatic compound" with DIPOLOMATS, DIGNITARIES, AMBASSADORS, AND OTHER IMPORTANT PEOPLE. AND ARMED GUARDS! most police don't even have guns in china. and then by some fluke there is this little punk illustrator living here as well.

I don't know what this demonic cat officer is saying because i am not studying chinese characters, only speaking. as you can see he is strapped/packing heat. he looks like he will not hesitate for one second to tap you with his burner so step off son!

parking i presume. i on the other hand use the bike rack for my bike with only 1 gear.

outside our elevator are 2 lcd advertising screens that change every so often. maybe they are wired to the interent i dont know. but they have these lcd advertising things in some weird places like random restaurants where the traffic that they get out of them must be really low. anyway they are better than those new roll over advertising spaces on the sides of bus stops in NY that are broken half the time.

front doorway

more front doorway hallway

dining room

living room

kitchen

kitchen

first bathroom

first bedroom with balconey

view from balcony. jianguomenwai da jie entrance guard post

balcony even wraps around the side

view from side

leads into greenhouse room that leads into the living room

greenhouse room

living room alternate view

second bedroom

2nd bathroom

this looks like a 3rd bedroom to me. it is filled with left over stuff from the people that used to live here that retired and moved to france.

1 comments:

wow. i lived in qi jia yuan in the early nineties!! back then it was a hole...literally. it was roach-infested, dirty and seen as the poor cousin of the jiang guo men wai compound. but it had so much character back then. is the park with the grass and the lake and the island in the middle still there? and the rocky hill with the pagoda on top? it's amazing to see how far the compound's come since then!!

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I was on an adventure around the world that ended up being 5 years. I lived 1.5 yrs in Beijing from June '08, 1.5 yrs in Tokyo from Sept '09, Barcelona for 3 months in summer '11, 5 months in London from August '11, NYC for 3 months, 2 month Asia trip, NYC for summer 2012, 1 year in Paris until Fall '13 (I got an artist's visa!), and now live in back in NYC. I am a freelance Illustrator working for magazines, newspapers, advertising, publishing, etc...www.JasonRaish.com